Sàbhailte
by irisdietrich
Summary: What if Jamie is freed from the Bastille but learns it was Faith not Claire who survived. What would he do? Would he accept her loss, grieve, and move on... or would he find a way to move heaven and earth to get her back?


A/N: All credit to original story and characters to Diana Gabaldon, this is written for fun and no copywrite infringement is intended. My first Outlander fic, it's a bit overwhelming but I'll try my best. I have decided not to attempt the Scottish brogue if its a Scottish character just imagine the Scottish accent I won't be writing it phonetically aside from a few words here and there. Also the title Sàbhailte means Faithful in Gaelic... now onto the story!

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Jamie had been at the Bastille for roughly 3 months, during which time he had no way of knowing what had become of his sassenach or their bairn. It was far worse torture then any physical pain he ever had to bear. He wasn't sure if he would ever know, he had been sentenced to life behind bars for dueling, if he had actually succeeded in killing Randall he was sure they would have executed him. Every night he sees Claire's face and is plagued by her screams, he remember the feeling of fighting to break free and run to her but he always wakes up in a cold sweat, failing her over and over again, night after night.

A guard had come and escorted him to the captain-governor's office. He wasn't sure what this could be about but doubted it was anything good.

He stood in front of a large ornate desk waiting to be acknowledged. Head down green cap in hand. (Fun Fact: before french revolution in the 18th century prisoners were identified by the colors of there caps, green was for life sentences)

The Captain-Governor, Bernard-Rene de Launay, was tall, lean, and very weathered. He had a stone face that had seen many years and many battles.

Jamie was sure he had been standing in total silence for nearly an hour before he was acknowledged. The Governor was able to communicate his power and authority without uttering a single word and it was just as effective if not better than any other man of authority he had encountered who immediately were boastful and threatening.

Finally Launay decided to show Jamie some mercy and broke the silence, "I don't know who you know but they must have a very long reach." the man uttered.

Jamie wasn't sure what he meant. It must have shown from the look on his face because Launay went on to explain,

"Apparently your sentence has been commuted."

Jamie was shocked and looked to the guard by the door to see if he had heard the same.

"You will have to pay his majesty every cent you made since your arrival here and you are to be exiled, never to set foot on french soil again. You need to be on the first boat out tomorrow regardless of what destination the boat is heading to or you will be returned here to me, at least your head will be."

Jamie nodded showing he understood but not daring to open his mouth a risk somehow undoing it all.

After some time he was escorted and thrown out into the back streets. Waiting there for him there was a woman, her back to him with the hood of her cape up.

"Claire?" He asked hopefully.

But when the figure turns around he finds it's not Clair but instead her excitable friend Louise.

"Mrs. La Tour," He spoke.

"What are you doing here?" he asks but a flash of red begs him to look down and sees the bundle in her arms.

He feels his breath leave him, he was so afraid they had lost the child,

"Is that…" he started to ask.

"Your daughter," She answered for him.

"I have a daughter?" He asked feeling utterly blessed, his eyes watered as she moved forward and placed the babe in his arms.

"Faith Ellen Claire Fraiser"

He kept grasping for words to express the wondrous joy and love that filled him but all fell short to capture how sublime it felt to hold his child in his arms. Arms that mere hours ago he thought would forever be weighed down in chains. He finds himself beyond words, she was such a tiny little thing but utterly perfect, she had his copper locks but Claire's beautiful eyes.

He didn't know how they had done it, how they had bargained his freedom but he would be in their debt.

"Where is Claire, is she refusing to see me?" He asked never taking his eyes off of Faith. He had assumed Louise was here because Claire was still too angry at him for going back on his word, he knew if he could just explain what had occurred with Furgus she would understand and they could be happy together finally as a family.

"She didn't…" Luise chokes back a sob that grabs Jamie's attention from the bairn, all of a sudden it was like the earth stopped spinning. Suddenly all warmth and life disappear from his body, he felt cold, dead as her words registered with him as he begged God he was misunderstanding her.

"Mother Hildegarde made sure everything that could have been done was, but she was bleeding so much and labor wasn't progressing so Monsieur Forez thought it best to at least save the child, he performed an operation and was able to gather Faith from Claire's womb but nothing could be done to save her after that."

Claire was dead, that's what she was saying… his Claire, his wife, his Mo Nighean Donn was no more. Everything they had been through and this is how he loses her? It didn't seem right nor fair.

"We thought," Louise spoke again pulling him from his spiral, "your uncle and me thought it was bad enough Faith would grow up without her mother, we didn't want her without you as well. We had to make several concessions and promise many favors but finally we were able to negotiate your freedom, but you must leave straight away."

 **Jamie POV:**

If Faith hadn't started to wiggle around I swear I would have forgotten she was even in my arms. I was experiencing a sort of out of body experience. Perhaps it was my soul trying to leave me and follow my Claire up to heaven but it wasn't my time yet, no matter if I had to be parted from my soul's true mate I had the product of our love in my arms and I needed to protect this life and honor our love, I owed it to the both of them, so I would be strong, somehow in some corner of my heart and mind I would find the strength to carry on and raise my daughter.

I leaned down and kissed her head, inhaling her scent I knew she had come to us straight from heaven, where her mother now was, she was a miracle, a gift from god, just as my sassenach had been. I did nothing to deserve either blessing but I swore on everything good still left in the world as well as the goodness waiting for us in the next that I would find a way to be worthy of the little girl in my arms.


End file.
